Itinerary for trip to Switzerland in June

If you are going to Zermatt can i recomend a day walk you can do from the village, to the East that ends up under the Materhorn. There are two ways you can do this, firstly you can take cable car to the high country that is situated to the North/East of the tourist authority, or if your fitness levels are OK you can simply follow the road that becomes a trail to the East of the village, but be warned it goes very much go up hill for about the first hour. Once you are into the next higher valley the walking becomes much easier, as you pass very small villages set in grasslands and fields of native flowers, very pretty indeed, and a highly recomended walk.

For wild flowers in early June, the Southern part of Switzerland is much better than the Bernes Oberland: check Val Canaria (Airolo), all mountains around Lago Maggiore (Monte Tamaro, Monte Lema), Val Onsernone (upper part), Val di Blenio.
But the best flora is neither around railway stations nor along highways. It is highly recommended to do some hikes. And the flowering seasons varies from area to area and from year to year. This year, everything comes about 2 weeks earlier than usual.

Waterfalls: Rheinfall, Staubbach, Schmadribachfall, Trummelbach, Iffigenfall, Pochtenfall, Aareschlucht, Pissevache, Giessbach, Reichenbachfall, Engstligenfälle, Diesbachfall, Rofflafall, Tosafall (Italy. close to Swiss border) and many others.

Thanks for the tips so far. Still doing alot of the detailed planning but I think I have the days split like so:

Getting to Zurich in AM on June 2
June 2: Lago Maggiore/Lugano
3,4,5: Zermatt
6: Geneva/Lausanne
7, 8: Jungraujoch
9: Lucerne
Leaving from Zurich on June 10

Does this sound reasonable? I know I'm spending 3 days in Zermatt but that is the number destination I want to see in Switzerland and I guess I'm compensating just in case of bad weather. Please tell me what you think. Also, we go the Swiss Saver Pass for 8 days. The last day from Lucerne to Zurich, our pass will have already expired, where do we find out how much it will be to get back to Zurich International Airport? Thanks!

Forget June 2nd. You will be too tired from jet lag. Anyway, the Ticino region cannot be explored in half a day. The train ride from ZRH to Lugano takes 3 hrs. A lake Lugano or Lake Maggiore cruise with the visit of some panoramic viewpoints, botanical gardens or scenic villages takes a whole day. If you want to see some wild flowers, you must take a bus in a montain valley and do some hiking. This will take another day.

Stay 3 days in Ticino and skip Jungfraujoch. After all the glaciers and more than 4000 metres high peaks of Zermatt, Jungfraujoch will bring you absolutely no added value, but a supplementary expense of 126 CHF/150 USD/pax, even with the Swiss Pass.

A standard fare ticket from ZRH to Lucerne costs 27 CHF.

Logical itinerary: ZRH - Lucerne - Lugano - Locarno - Zermatt - Lake Geneva - ZRH, or vice versa.

Hello,
we are goint to Switzerland in June, too. Our intinerary looks like following:
1. Arrive to Zurich in the morning, take a look around, train to Luzern in the afternoon. Explore the town.
2. Titlis or Luzern town, depends on weather
3. Wilhelm Tell boat+train to Locarno. Explore Locarno afternoon.
4. train to Lugano, Swiss miniature etc. Back to Locarno in the evening.
5. Centovalli train to Domodossola, maybe hop off somewhere in the middle and take next train to Zermatt in the afternoon.
6. Explore Zermatt, go to Martigny in the evening
7. Martigny (Sanct Bernard pass and dogs museum), train to Geneva in the afternoon
8. Quick look to Geneva, our plane leaves in the afternoon

What do you think?

Zincis:

The glaciers of Zermatt are much more impressioning than Titils. In my eyes, the Titlis trip is rather a waste of time and money.

May be you go from Locarno by train to Lugano - Ponte Tresa and then by boat (dp 11.10) to Swissminiatur. Very scenic boat ride!

The Gd St- Bernard trip will take almost a whole day. If you travel after June 13th, you may consider to go down at the Italian side and visit the Roman theatre of Aosta. Continue then by bus to Courmayeur and sleep there.
Next day: Courmayeur - Chamonix (bus through the Mont Blanc tunnel or gondolas over the glaciers) and direct bus from Chamonix to GVA airport.

This would be a good manner to reinvest the day you gain if you skip Titlis!

neckervd

Thanks for response. Maybe we skip Titlis.

Could you please tell me a little more about the boat Lugano-Melide, I am not sure I have found right information.
I guess you don't mean this http://www.lakelugano.ch/fileUpload/news/14/flyer_offerta11_bassa.pdf But maybe it is interesting, what do you think?
I really got confused about the boat time-table here http://www.lakelugano.ch/en/11/timetable_summer_2011.aspx#3 How long does it take from Ponte Tresa to Melide? Maybe better to take the boat back from Melide instead - to rest our legs after exploring "whole Switzerland"?

We wanted to go up to St-Bernard pass initially, our children want to see the dogs. But it is really a whole-day trip so I decided we stay in Martingy and take a look on museum there http://www.musee-saint-bernard.ch/site.php?action=musee

http://www.lakelugano.ch/fileUpload/news/14/flyer_offerta11_bassa.pdf
is a round trip ticket: cable car from Lugano Paradiso to the view point Monte San Salvatore (restaurant), hike down to the village of Carona (many restaurants, swimming pool, etc.) and then (rather steeply) down to Melide and back to Lugano by boat. It's a nice excursion if you like to walk 2 to 3 hrs.

http://www.lakelugano.ch/en/11/timetable_summer_2011.aspx#3 H
is the official timetable of all Lugano boats. Every leg is scenic, but Melide - Ponte Tresa is among the best and the boats of this line stop at Swissminiatur.
Therefore I suggest: Locarno dp by train 9.03 - Giubiasco 9.22/9.30 - Lugano 9.57/10.10 (from FLP railway station, accross the road) - Ponte Tresa ar 10.35, dp by boat 11.10 - Swissminiatur ar 12.14.

If you want to do the trip in the other sense, leave Locarno at 8.33 - Giubiasco 8.52/9.00 - Lugano ar 9.27, walk down to the church (view point) and then to the historic town center and the boat pier, leave Lugano by boat at 10.15 and arrive at Swissminiatur at 10.45. Continue at 14.31 by boat to Ponte Tresa ar 15.45.

Martigny: don't miss the excavations of the Roman town of Octodurum and the small roman theatre
http://www.martigny.ch/ville-administration/octodurum.html

Scenic routes from Martigny to Geneva:
train Martigny - Le Chatelard (recommended side trip by touristic railway to Emosson) - Chamonix - St-Gervais - Annemasse - Geneva;
any train Martigny - Bouveret, Bouveret dp 13.33 by Lake Geneva steamboat - Geneva ar 19.20, resp Bouveret dp 16.33 by Lake Geneva steamboat up to Morges ar 19.25; change boat at Lausanne Ouchy in both cases. Trains Morges - Geneva (20 min ride) about every 15 minutes.

SWiTZERLAND WITH CHILDREN

As public transport is rather expensive in Switzerland, study carefully the sites about Swiss Pass, Swiss Flexipass and Swiss half fare card: http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/Tickets.16.0.html?&L=2#s_h_f_c

Check the Swiss Travel System Family Card
The Swiss Travel System Family Card is issued at no cost to parents who wish to take along their children under the age of 16 at no cost. Please note that at least one parent has to travel with the child/ren.

Some ideas:

historic steamboats on Lake Geneva:
http://www.cgn.ch/horaires/pdf/AffA2-ete-10.pdf
http://www.cgn.ch/eng/flotte

Swiss Vapeur Park Le Bouveret:
http://www.swissvapeur.ch/en/index.php

Signal de Bougy:
http://www.parc-aventure.ch/Signal-de-Bougy/
http://www.signaldebougy.ch/

Blonay-Chamby historic railway:
http://www.blonay-chamby.ch/index-en.php

Chillon castle:
http://www.chillon.ch/en/

Gruyeres castle, cheese diary and chocolate factory:
http://www.chateau-gruyeres.ch/e/multimedia/spectacle.html
http://www.la-gruyere.ch/en/navpage-ExcursionsFR-HistSitesFR-120085.html
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=56
http://www.lamaisondugruyere.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142&Itemid=56

Chatelard-Emosson (Mont Blanc area):
http://www.chatelard.net/english/pages/descr_e.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emosson
http://www.emosson.ch/PublicEN/default-en.htm

Zermatt-Gornergrat:
http://www.gornergrat.ch/home/index.php
http://www.klein-matterhorn.ch/photos/
http://www.zermatt.ch/en/index.cfm

Entirely walled city of Murten:
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/navpage-DestinationsFR-MurtenFR-99305.html
http://www.murtentourismus.ch/en/navpage_list-DestinationsFR-MurtenFR.html

Medieval city of Bern:
http://www.berninfo.com/en/page.cfm/Information
http://www.kleinbahn-gurten.ch/

Swiss Village Park Ballenberg:
http://ballenberg.ch/en/Welcome

Lugano and Swissminiatur:
http://www.lugano-tourism.ch/en/291/default.aspx
http://www.swissminiatur.ch/

Seewen in the Jura close to Basel:
http://www.bundesmuseen.ch/musikautomaten/index.html?lang=en

Rapperswil:
http://www.zuerichsee.ch/en/page.cfm/ExperiencesRZ/FamilyDRZ/1230
http://www.knieskinderzoo.ch/
http://www.zuerichsee.ch/en/page.cfm/SightsRZ
http://www.zuerich.com/en/page.cfm/region_zuerich/region_zuerich_x

Rhine Falls Adventure Park
http://www.rheinfall.ch/Attraktionen/Adventure-Park?lang=en-US

Furka steam train
http://www.furka-bergstrecke.ch/eng/train/timetable.php

You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/interests/family.html
http://www.takethefamily.com/where/switzerland-family-holidays-and-breaks
http://www.eparenting.co.uk/family_holidays_europe/switzerland.shtml
http://www.reka.ch/en/rekaferien/Pages/default.aspx
http://littletravellers.com/destinations/areas/europe/family-holiday-switzerland/